The Friend Who Wasn't There
by april.wahlin
Summary: A latch ket kid finds a strange new friend who opens her eyes to a new world.
1. The Friend Who Wasn't There (1)

The Friend That Wasn't There - World of Ithiria  
By April Wahlin  
Edited by Travis Noble

Yesterday upon the stair,  
I met a man who wasn't there.  
He wasn't there again today,  
Oh, how I wish he'd go away… -Hughes Meams

Simone rolled over in bed onto a discarded snack box, accidentally grinding crumbs and sugar into the bed spread. Mom isn't going to be happy. She moaned as she brushed the mess off the bed. Having done a so-so job, she went back to flipping through cartoon channels. Nothing on. Suppose she could read a book to fight the boredom―but why when there's TV? Boredom or not, reading a book is for people without electricity. There had to be something on.

With a free hand, Simone fidgeted with her wristband. Sliding her thumb across the barcode. It was from yesterday's visit. Just an asthma attack―nothing out of the norm…but still. She glanced out the window again. Dusk and an empty driveway. Her parents should have been home by now. She wished they would take her out like they used to. Dinner, movies, Disneyland…anywhere besides a hospital.

Simone finally settled on a station when something passed in the hallway outside her door.

"Mom?" she called.

No answer.

Simone glanced out the window again. Had her parents parked on the street instead of the driveway?

The boards in the hallway creaked with the pressure of footsteps. Simone's heart sped. There was definitely someone else in the house.

She grabbed a foam bat from the corner of her room, tiptoed to the doorway and peered out. Nothing. Had she imagined it?

She crept into the hall toward the kitchen.

Suddenly, she felt a presence to her left. She spun to face the staircase and there stood a tall, thin man with short, black hair and eyes so dark they had no whites―as though they weren't eyes at all. His skin was the color of granite and he wore a casual, stylish, dark grey suit with no shoes. He was like a shadow.

He didn't move even the slightest muscle as he stared down at her with piqued interest.

"Hello," he called plainly.

"Stay back!" She swung her bat wildly―just so he would know she was serious―and bolted toward the front door.

Simone fumbled with the locks. Why were there so many? She looked back. But no one was there. The staircase was darkness-free.

She leaned against the door, gasping for breath as she looked around. Had her boredom become so intense that she was imagining things?

All the same, she thought she should go to a neighbor for help. But she didn't really know her neighbors―and from what she had seen of them, they were scarier than the dark man on the stairway. It was Los Angeles after all.

She crept back toward the stairs. Still nothing. No sign of the man whatsoever. Just a still room. Perhaps it was the sugar? Too much wasn't good, but causing hallucinations? That was new…

"You shouldn't leave the bag open like this," a voice called from the kitchen.

She turned so fast her neck muscles twinged. Simone fumbled with the bat before brandishing it at the dark intruder―who was now leaning against the kitchen counter popping cookies into his mouth.

"Your snacks will go stale," he scolded between bites.

"Why are you here?!" she yelled, hoping she sounded even the slightest bit formidable.

"Why are you here?!" He replied pointedly, as though she were the one trespassing.

She heard a car in the driveway. Waves of relief washed over her.

"I'll see you around." The man smiled at her. He seemed entirely genuine―aside from his breaking and entering. Although, looking around, there wasn't much sign of breaking. Strange…

Her parents were outside, talking on the step. She turned to the door. Odd. They had both come home at the same time.

She turned back to warn away the dark man, but he was nowhere to be seen. How had she not heard him leave?

She rushed to the kitchen window, searching for signs of him. But she found only an empty yard and the neon sign of the old hotel behind her house. The sign cast an eery glow in the dimming light, one that sent a strange chill down her spine.

"Darkness," she muttered curiously.

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	2. The Friend Who Wasn't In The Attic (2)

The Friend That Wasn't In the Attic (2)- World of Ithiria  
By April Wahlin  
Edited by Travis Noble

When I came home last night at three,  
The man was waiting there for me  
But when I looked around the hall,  
I couldn't see him there at all!

-Hughes Mearns

Simone stared out the kitchen window. The neon hotel sign in her backyard reminded her of the haunting encounter with the shadowy man. Darkness. It wasn't every day one had an intruder in their house, but it had been a few days since the incident. She should have gotten over it by now, right?

Yet, she had nothing else to occupy her mind. Her parents argued too much to pay her any attention. Even when she tried to tell them about the strange intruder, they ignored her. They probably thought she was crazy. Simone couldn't blame them, she wasn't entirely sure she had seen the shadowy man.

Simone tried to call one of her friends, just to have someone to talk to, but there was no answer. All of her school friends had stopped calling. Of course, it was summer break, naturally some of them would be away on family vacations, but why did they all have to go at once?

This had to be the worst summer of her life.

The sky darkened and shadows crawled along the backyard fence. The only positive about the end of such a boring day was night time programing and the hope of a better day tomorrow.

With a sigh, she grabbed her snacks, and headed to her room. Her parents were out for the night. Again. For how much they fought they sure went out enough. She wished they would take her with them every now and again. Even if she did have to listen to her mother's wailing—the woman cried at the drop of a hat. Someone on TV once called it 'the change.' Her mother had changed all right, but as far as she could figure, it just meant lots of tears and complaining about the weather.

Nearing her room, she heard the steps to the second floor creak loudly. She turned in time to catch the flash of a dark foot hurrying up the stairs.

Her heart raced. Had she really seen something? Or had she been thinking about the shadowy man so much that she was seeing things again?

Then came another loud creak from the second floor. Suddenly she felt as though something were calling her. Not in words. It was a feeling, a lost sort of feeling.

Nervously, she crept up the stairs. For a moment she thought about bringing her foam bat, but that hadn't done much good last time. She would just have to rely on her feet and run at the first sign of trouble.

The second floor was entirely empty, it felt as if no one had been there in a long time. Across the hall, the attic door creaked, summoning her attention. It stood open a crack. Strange. That door was never open. In fact, she was pretty sure her parents kept it locked.

Simone opened the door and looked up the thin stair leading into the attic. There came that lost feeling again. Slowly she ascended. Simone had never been in the attic before. Even as a kid it had always been locked up and forbidden.

Cresting the top stair, she couldn't see what all the fuss was about. There were nothing but cobwebs, a few pieces of old furniture, and there was a small window facing the backyard.

Why lock a door if there was nothing up there?

The ceiling was low and sloped up at the center of the great room. She walked to the little window and looked out. There, perfectly illuminated, stood the motel sign. She was about to turn when she noticed movement beneath the neon letters. There was something beneath it, multiple somethings in fact. Were they people or shadows? It was hard to tell in the dim light.

Bang!

Simone jumped in shock and turned, narrowly avoiding a bump to the head on the low ceiling. Across the room she saw a large wardrobe. Something had bumped it- Something had moved it. She took a deep breath and cautiously approached. Had a raccoon gotten into the attic somehow? Once more, Simone felt swamped with the lost feeling. It was stronger than ever now. She was nearly to the wardrobe-

"What brings you up here?" his voice called from behind her.

Immediately she turned and there he stood, casually leaning against the small attic window like he had been there the whole time. He could almost be mistaken for a shadow cast in the moonlight.

"Darkness—" she replied in shock.

"Darkness?" He smirked. "'Suppose I've been called worse."

A hundred questions flew through her mind. Where had he come from? Why was he in her attic?

Just then, the wardrobe shifted again.

Bang!

There was definitely something hiding behind it.

"You didn't answer my question," Darkness called, commanding her attention.

"What question?"

"What brings you up here?"

"I thought I heard something," she replied. Why was she explaining herself to him? He was the one in her house. "Wait, who are you? What are you doing up here?" she asked when—

Bang!

"I wouldn't," Darkness called as she turned to the furniture behind her. She could now see what had been making the noise.

Standing with its back against the large old dresser was a tall thin figure wholly unlike Darkness. This man, if you could call it that, was old, with thin scraggly hair and a tragic expression etched upon its semitranslucent face. The sad creature was a ghastly muted green-blue color normally reserved for toads. The creature stared deep into her eyes, as though trying to read her very thoughts.

She gasped in terror and chills ran down her spine. Before she could stop herself, the word burst from her mouth.

"Ghost!"

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	3. The Friend Who Wasn't In The Yard (3)

The Friend Who Wasn't in the Yard.

Last night I saw upon the stair,

There was a man who wasn't there,

He wasn't there again today

Oh, how I wish he'd go away...

-Hughes Mearns

Simone leapt back from the apparition before her. "Ghost!"

"Don't scream, you're going to upset it," Darkness sighed, leaning on the window sill looking perfectly calm with his back eyes and dark casual suit.

"I'm going to upset it?!" she nearly screamed back.

Slowly, Darkness approached the poltergeist, staring at the apparition indifferently.

The specter looked back and forth between Simone and Darkness like a trapped animal. Simone was about to ask what was happening when the translucent man suddenly looked at Darkness, began shaking his head, and backing away.

"Pity," Darkness sighed and stepped aside as the man ran for the small attic window.

Simone sidestepped quickly as the poltergeist dove straight through the closed window like it was nothing, leaving not even the slightest trace behind.

Simone ran for the window and looked out. There crouched in the yard was the ghostly figure. Standing up, it crossed the yard and passed through the fence without breaking stride. She squinted through the darkness at the neon hotel sign where the creature joined a group of figures much like itself.

With jaw agape, Simone turned, half expecting Darkness to have disappeared. But there he stood leaning against the wardrobe with his arms folded across his chest.

"I assume you have questions."

"Only about a thousand,' she replied. "What the heck just happened? What was that-"

"— That was a very sad and confused soul."

"It was a ghost!"

"Shhh," he told the raising a finger to his lips. "They don't like being called that."

"Excuse me?"

"They have feelings too. It's like calling you short. You need a better bedside manner. They'll never cross over if you yell at them like that."

"What? Cross over where? What are you talking about."

"Come on," he sighed and headed for the door. "Let's see if we can't undo some of the damage you've done."

"Hang on a minute. Why should I go anywhere with you?"

"Fine then. Stay here if you're going to be like that," he replied and was out the door.

Simone stood alone in the drafty attic trying to process all that had just happened. Who was this strange man and what creature had he brought into her house?

Hearing the lower footstep of the first floor creek, she quickly snapped out of it and headed out the door. She would never get answers if Darkness disappeared again.

"Wait!" she called, racing after him down the stairs, but there was no one in the house. Where had he gone?

She hurried into the kitchen. The back door was ajar, as if it had been left open for her.

She stepped outside, and her whole world seemed to shift. The sun should have set by now, yet now it was only a lighter shade of twilight. Suddenly she couldn't tell if the sun was coming up or going down. It had to be going down, right?

Across the yard, Darkness sat perched on the back fence.

"Come along then," he called impatiently and dropped off onto the other side.

Simone hurried to the fence and quickly scaled it. She'd never been very athletic, yet in her excitement, it seemed hardly a challenge.

At the top of the fence she paused and looked back. Her house seemed so dark and lonely. Feeling a strange indifference, she kicked her legs off the other side and dropped into a gravel lot riddled with weeds.

Standing, she brushed herself off and looked up to find Darkness waiting.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"Does it matter?" he scoffed. "Are you ready?"

"— I guess," she replied.

"That'll have to do," he sighed as though disappointed and headed down the gravel decline to the big neon motel sign.

As before, Simone saw figures milling about beneath it. Some stood staring at the sign, as though transfixed. Others focused intently on odd minuscule things like a rock or quarter that shimmered in the neon light. However, all of them had something in common, they were all sad and all semitranslucent. A strong feeling of loss came upon her and felt as though she might might faint.

Simone stared in wonder. "What are they doing?"

"Grasping at life," Darkness replied plainly. "It's an epidemic these days. Use to be people didn't cross because of longing for a loved one or some kind of revenge. Unresolved issues they called it, but now people hang on for useless things like greed. They cling to so many possessions in life that they can't bear to part with them in death. It's sad really, they cant take it with them."

"By cross do you mean, die? You're telling me they're dead, right?"

"Souls wandering around on their lonesome are often missing that key living factor, namely a body," he answered.

With that, Darkness began wandering through the crowd of ghastly figures, examining them one by one. Most ignored him. But three souls followed him through the crowd until he came back full circle to Simone.

"Only three?" he sighed disappointed. "I'll get the rest of you, just you wait!" he yelled at the crowd, but they paid him no mind.

Just then, a strange vaguely glowing handwritten sign on her back fence caught Simone's attention, 'Never Alone.'

Wandering out of the gravel, Darkness called to Simone. "Ok, come on then."

"Wait," she answered. "Where are we going now?"

He stopped a moment and turned to her. "You really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

Darkness sighed, hung his head, and continued on.

"Where are we going?" she asked again.

"To show you your destiny."


	4. The friend Who Wasn't In The Park (4)

The Friend Who Wasn't in the Park (4)

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

-Simon &amp; Garfunkle

Quickly, Simone ran after Darkness. He didn't appear to walk any faster than Simone, yet somehow he managed to gain more ground. People walked the streets paying them little to no attention. That seemed strange, even for a city as big as LA where no one would give you a second look if your hair were on fire.

She hurried down the road after him. Thankfully, when he reached the park across the way, he finally slowed.

"You're never going to get anything done at that pace," he told her offhandedly as she came to a stop.

"I can't go any faster," she replied catching her breath.

"Well not with that attitude," he replied and turned to the three ghostly figures behind him. "Now for you three."

The figures looked dismal and worn as they shuffled in place before him. Two stood fumbling with little shiny objects.

"Hand it here," he called to the apparitions.

Reluctantly one of the figures sighed with a strange echoey sort of sound and handed over the small rock. Almost immediately the creature began to glow, brighter and brighter until its form blurred. Simone shielded her eyes, but then the brightness went out. A faint gust of wind rustled her hair and the surrounding foliage.

The creature was gone.

The gust rustled the clothes of those milling about in the park, but they didn't so much as slowed in step.

Raising his arm, the other apparition tried repeatedly to hand over his shiny object, but pulled back each time Darkness moved to take it.

"Come now. Can't take it where you're going," Darkness told the tragic thing.

Seeming tortured, the creature forced itself to drop the shiny bit of glass into Darkness's hand. A moment later the figure shone bright and disappeared like the creature before it.

"What did they give you?" Simone asked, looking at the things in Darkness's hand.

"Just junk," he replied, dropping the rock and glass to the ground before turning to the last of the three apparitions.

This creature held no object and merely smiled at Darkness, as if in thanks, and began to glow until its light extinguished too. A gust of wind fluttered about them in its wake, leaving a thin fog in the air. Darkness just waved it away and turned to Simone.

"Ok, lets go," he told her, heading further into the park.

"Wait a second, what just happened?" she yelled hurrying after him. "What did you do to them?"

"Some need a little push to cross over, otherwise they just hang around here for all eternity."

"So they died?"

"A long time ago," he chuckled. "Now they're where they're supposed to be. Namely, not with the living."

"Why didn't they go in the first place?"

"So many questions," he groaned at her and finally stopped. "Denial is a powerful force," he replied simply.

"Well why didn't anyone notice what just happened?" she asked looking around at the parkgoers.

"What the living? They wouldn't notice if I came up behind them and braided their hair."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Why can I see you?"

Silently, he ran a hand over his face in frustration. Perhaps she was being a bit too pushy.

"You're different," he replied, slower now. "Only the dead, those who are close to death, and those that have been close to death can see me. Even in those last two situations its rare, but it happens."

Simone stood staring at him a moment. She had been in and out of the hospital a lot. "So— I can see you because I've been sick?"

"A little more than that," he replied, furrowing his brow slightly. Her eyes meet the two black pools of darkness that were his eyes.

"I nearly died?—Or are you saying that I am dying?" she knew her athsma was bad. It always had been, but she couldn't imagine being close to death. She felt just as she always had. In fact her lungs felt clearer than ever.

"Ok lets try something different here," he sighed exasperated. "What color is your hair?"

"My hair?" she asked. "I don't know, sort of a dirty blond color. What kind of question is that?"

"Skin tone?"

"I'd consider myself tan."

"And your eyes?" he continued plainly.

"Well some say brown, but I'd like to think they're more gold."

"Mhmmm,"

"Why?"

"Might want to look down there," he told her and motioned to a small pond beside them. She hadn't even noticed it.

With a roll of her eyes Simon looked down into the glassy waters of the man made watering hole to find darkness looking back up at her.

"It's you," she called in surprise.

"Look again," he replied, now lounging on a nearby park bench.

Confused, Simone looked back down into the strange image. It was darkness's eyes, skin color, and even his black hair. Although, now that she studied it, the dark hair was longer, and the face slightly more feminine. Same sort of dark grey suit though definitely cut for a woman, if even a waifish one. Then all at once, it struck her. The shape of the eye and lip was especially familiar. She knew these features, for they were her own.

Just then Darkness's reflection appeared in the pond next to her. "Denial is a powerful force," he sighed.


End file.
